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Fidel Castro - Cuba
various LINKS to articles | April 14, 2002

Posted on 04/14/2002 4:36:10 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

This is a LINK to articles since April 21, 2001 about Cuba and the communist threat - CHILDREN'S CODE At this LINK is a LINK to many Elian articles. Below I will post similar articles since the FR format changed and locked posts to this LINK. Please add what you wish to this thread.

Eyes Wide Open--[Excerpts] The Los Angeles kids, chosen for their photographic skills and their ability to work with others, represented the Venice Arts Mecca, a nonprofit organization that brings volunteer artists together with youngsters from low-income families to nurture their creativity in areas ranging from literary arts to photography. They looked. They listened. They photographed. And they took notes for their journals.

…….Before embarking on their adventure, the kids--who were joined by two young people from Washington, D.C., and accompanied by adult mentors--studied the sociopolitical history of South Africa, including apartheid. All were Latino or African American or a mix of the two, and were encouraged to think about their own identity, their own experiences with racism.

……..Before embarking on their adventure, the kids--who were joined by two young people from Washington, D.C., and accompanied by adult mentors--studied the sociopolitical history of South Africa, including apartheid. All were Latino or African American or a mix of the two, and were encouraged to think about their own identity, their own experiences with racism.

…..At the conference exhibit hall, the L.A. kids mounted a photo exhibition showing the underbelly of America. There were bleak images of life on an Indian reservation, of the homeless in Los Angeles. It was an eye-opener to some South Africans, who thought everyone in America was rich. "They were absolutely shocked," said Lynn Warshafsky, executive director of Venice Arts Mecca.

In turn, the L.A. group was surprised at the degree of anti-American sentiment, something they had to process. "They had to ask themselves questions they'd never asked before" about how others see them, Warshafsky said.

……..For Eamon, the highlight was hearing Fidel Castro speak. "I had thought of him as seriously evil. I realized he's not evil, he's doing what he thinks is best. He has this sort of demeanor about him. Whether you like him or not, you respect him. It opened my eyes." [End Excerpts]


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Cuba; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: castro; castrowatch; communism; cuba; frlibrarians; latinamericalist
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Cuba Says It Can Survive Ban on U.S. Remittances *** HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist-run Cuba reacted angrily on Friday to a report the Bush administration was considering suspending family remittances by Cuban-Americans and said its socialist economy would survive the blow. The cash remittances from relatives in the United States, now estimated to total as much as $1 billion a year, are a vital source of income for many Cubans coping with economic hardship in Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The New York Times reported on Thursday the Bush administration was studying a series of steps to punish the Cuban government for a recent crackdown on dissidents.

"More than four decades of revolution have demonstrated that are (sic) country is capable of facing any threat and defeating sinister plans of all kinds," a Cuban government statement said. "The punished will be many families ... and, what is worse, many elderly people who depend on theses remittances," said the statement, published on the front page of the Communist Party daily newspaper Granma. ***

441 posted on 04/18/2003 1:11:51 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Venezuelans Protest Cuba Crackdown, Meddling - Show solidarity with repressed Cuban people *** "We don't want Venezuela to be turned into another Cuba and that is what we are heading for. We have to show solidarity with the repressed Cuban people," said Marielena Adrianza, a consulting firm employee joining the opposition protest. Opponents of Chavez, a left-wing former paratrooper elected in 1998 on a populist platform, brand him a fledgling dictator and fear he will drive Venezuela toward Cuban-style communism. He scoffs at their claims.

Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage riled foes of Chavez over the weekend when he criticized Venezuelan opposition leaders during a conference in Caracas. Friday's small demonstration came a day after Venezuela voted against a United Nations resolution urging Cuba to accept a visit by a human rights commission following the arrest of scores of Cuban dissidents. ***

442 posted on 04/19/2003 1:41:29 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Cuba: Executions meant to deter migration - Why can't Cubans travel? *** HAVANA -The Cuban government Friday justified the recent executions of three men who hijacked a ferry as an effort to avert a ''migration crisis'' that, according to the foreign minister, could result in a ''war'' with the United States. Speaking to reporters, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said that ''we were obliged by the circumstances under which the country is living, and with pain'' to carry out the executions, which he labeled a ``last resort.'' The executions, he said, were intended to dissuade other would-be hijackers and nip in the bud an ensuing exodus across the Straits of Florida that would create a confrontation with the U.S. government.

''This is an exceptional step, a painful measure taken as a last resort and founded on the hope of avoiding great loss of life and costs for both countries,'' Pérez Roque said, ``impeding a migratory crisis that would end in a war between both countries.''*** The executions followed a wave of detentions and convictions of about 75 Cuban dissidents on charges of subversion. Pérez Roque Friday warned those dissidents who have not been arrested to be careful because there would be no ''impunity'' for anyone who commits treason.

His comments marked the first effort by the government of Fidel Castro to address the executions, which, together with the wave of repression, have drawn an extraordinary round of condemnation from a number of nations and human rights organizations. Pérez Roque also boasted that the U.N. Human Rights Commission's failure to condemn Cuba for its recent crackdown affirmed the island leadership's belief in the right to defend itself from attempts to subvert its system.***

443 posted on 04/19/2003 4:18:13 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Cuba - communist intellectuals ask for end to criticism *** HAVANA -A group of world-renowned Cuban intellectuals released a letter to their colleagues around the world Saturday, asking them to stop criticizing harsh measures recently employed here. Titled Message from Havana to our friends in faraway places, the letter was published Saturday in the Communist Party daily Granma. Signed by 27 of Cuba's best-known cultural figures, the letter describes the ''surprise and pain'' felt when liberal intellectuals around the world criticized Cuba for its crackdown on dissidents and the executions of three ferry hijackers.***
444 posted on 04/20/2003 1:59:17 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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U.S. ready in case of major exodus from Cuba *** Coast Guard cutters operating off South Florida's shores have picked up fewer Cuban migrants in the first three months of the year than Haitians and Dominicans combined. But the absence of large numbers of Cuban migrants headed for South Florida may be the calm before the storm. A wave of repression in Cuba in recent weeks has been so alarming that U.S. officials have begun to wonder whether Cuba may unleash a new Mariel-style exodus -- a typical Cuban response in times of crisis. American officials are so worried that they have already quietly advised Cuba not to attempt any such action. But if a new exodus occurs, officials say they will activate a classified federal contingency plan designed to deal with migrant surges. Operation Distant Shore would trigger a dramatic escalation in the number of Coast Guard and other military vessels patrolling the Florida Straits -- a veritable floating wall designed to interdict as many migrants as possible at sea.

…………………. Greenhill, a research fellow at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, said the circumstances of the current Cuban crisis should be monitored closely for signs of a possible new exodus. ''I would say that the situation bears close watching,'' he said. But he added that Castro might think twice before sanctioning a new exodus. ''I don't think it's impossible we could see another outflow,'' Greenhill said, ``but if I were Castro, I'd think long and hard about launching an engineered migration this time around, given the prevailing environment in the aftermath of Sept. 11 and Iraq. The world looks different today than it did in 1965, 1980 and 1994.''***

445 posted on 04/20/2003 2:05:46 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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CUBA AND THE UN: A FIVE-ACT TRAGEDY REALITY IS WORSE THAN FICTION *** We arrive, therefore, at the final question: If this isn't the right organization to issue a ringing endorsement of human rights in Cuba on behalf of the world community, what is? We don't believe that the United Nations is obsolete. It has been, is and will continue to be a force for good. Whether it should be reorganized to be more effective is a worthy topic for another discussion. But the Human Rights Commission's behavior in Geneva proves that even forces for good can be thwarted by human beings bent on evil. The fact that its chair this year is Libya and that several countries with a similarly soiled record of human rights sit on the panel makes this commission less than it should be.

WILL RIGHTS BE PROTECTED?

Supporters of Cuban dissidents were right to settle for half a loaf, but we have to ask: If the commission can't use diplomacy to fulfill its most basic mandate -- to spotlight aberrant international behavior and use diplomatic means to redress such behavior -- of what use is diplomacy? When the issue arises again before the commission, as it surely will, it will be good to remember the events of the last few weeks.

The issue is not whether human rights are being abused in Cuba. That question has been asked and answered to the satisfaction of everyone who doesn't wear ideological blinders. The question is whether the commission that is supposed to protect and nurture human rights will be ready to fulfill its duties, or whether, in a world that professes disgust for totalitarian governments, it is already hopelessly out of touch.

A strong condemnation of Cuba would be a signal that, for a change, the world is watching the repugnant actions of Fidel Castro and is ready to declare his government an outcast; that the world understands that Castro's dispute isn't with the United States but with his own people; and that it stands ready to say, with Saramago, ``This is as far as we go.''***

446 posted on 04/21/2003 12:46:37 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Cutting-edge biotech in old-world Cuba : Castro Weaponizes West Nile Virus - *** As the Bush administration prepares for war with Iraq a growing threat to its rear flank is being ignored, according to senior officials who believe that Cuba's biological-weapons (BW) program is at more advanced stages than officially is acknowledged. There now are reports that P-4 containment systems used to store the deadliest toxins have been identified at suspected bioweapons labs inside Cuba.

A member of the intelligence community expresses concern, but says that an open hearing on this issue would provide "feedback" to Cuba on "how much we know about its BW effort." Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton, the source says, was scheduled to deliver details of the Cuban program to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June, but the testimony was suppressed by the intelligence bureaucracy.***

Cutting-edge biotech in old-world Cuba: Castro's Connections - Editor's Note: This article first appeared in American Legion magazine, April 2002. *** The U.S. government's detaining of Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo naval base in Cuba is supremely ironic given Fidel Castro's long-standing support for global terrorism. As we continue our worldwide battle against terrorists, this sly but significant terror monger on our very own doorstep should not be overlooked. Castro is a bankrupt dictator with a decades-long history of support for violent, anti-American terror groups, obsessive hatred of the U.S., sophisticated spy rings operating on our soil and a potentially deadly biowarfare capability.***

447 posted on 04/21/2003 12:54:57 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Where are you now, Fidelistas? ***What's truly shocking is the absence of outrage from his American friends. Where are all the Fidelistas in Hollywood, whose lengthy love affair with Castro is impressively -- and depressingly -- documented by Damien Cave in the April issue of The Washington Monthly? Oliver Stone has recently completed a documentary, ''Commandante,'' which HBO was supposed to air in May but canceled last week because of the news events. In Stone's oeuvre, Castro is given a chance to assert, unchallenged, that the Cuban regime has never practiced torture -- and also to show his ''human'' side by discussing, among other things, his love for the movie ''Titanic.'' Maybe the metaphor of a huge sinking ship strikes a chord: After all, Castro presides over a country whose economy has hit bottom and whose inhabitants are willing to brave shark-infested waters in rickety boats to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Stone is well known for his far-left political views, but he is hardly alone in his Fidel worship. Actors Kevin Costner and Jack Nicholson and director Steven Spielberg have made fawning comments about the Cuban dictator; after a trip to Cuba last year, Spielberg described his meeting with Castro as ''the most important eight hours in my life.''

And it's not just Hollywood types, either. Media stars and executives, from CNN founder Ted Turner to ABC News veteran Barbara Walters and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, have joined in the lovefest -- apparently setting aside for the occasion their passion about freedom of speech. In The Washington Monthly, Cave speculates that the reasons for this strange romance are both personal and political: They range from resentment of US foreign policy and the perception of Castro as a fearless David standing up to an American Goliath to the dictator's personal charisma and his skill at massaging the egos of his celebrity guests. All that may be so. But one would think that the recent crackdown in Cuba would serve as a shattering wake-up call even for the most oblivious.***

448 posted on 04/21/2003 2:19:21 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Chatterbox: Fidel Castro, Book Critic - Foreign Policy magazine buffs a dictator's image.*** Foreign Policy has spiffed itself up lately, and as a result the magazine is much livelier and thought-provoking than it used to be. Gibney notes, correctly, that running Castro's review does not imply any sort of endorsement. "We'd run a movie review by Kim Jong-il if we felt it might shed some useful light on his thinking and personality," Gibney says. (Next month: Idi Amin reviews The Lovely Bones!) On reflection, Chatterbox can't really dispute that it's interesting to learn what dictators do in their spare time. But that doesn't let Foreign Policy off the hook. A movie review by Kim Jong-il couldn't enable any widespread belief that Kim is some sort of philosopher-king, because no such belief exists. It's different, alas, with Castro. Many people think of Castro as some sort of Latin Papa Hemingway, and the publication of this review will only encourage them to go on believing it.***
449 posted on 04/21/2003 2:35:18 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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The Three Amigos Castro - Human Rights and Latin Anti-Americanism *** Washington must make clear that being "anti-gringo" just on principle cannot continue in the age of international terrorism. Behavior should cost in terms of how many benefits one can expect to continue from Washington. Opposing the United States on matters of American security should have a cost in that regard, and Washington should impose it. Mexico, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina should be convinced that the cost is real and immediate.***
450 posted on 04/21/2003 4:41:19 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Facts on Castro's Oppression: terrifying realites of life inside totalitarian regime. ***Testimony before the House International Relations Committee in Washington, D.C., given on April 16, 2003. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, you are to be commended for holding this hearing to spotlight the recent crackdown in Cuba. The committee's continuing interest in the situation in Cuba is particularly well timed and welcome, given the growing international concern over the efforts of the repressive regime to stifle independent voices and a growing demand for democracy.***
451 posted on 04/22/2003 12:00:07 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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PBS Plans Documentary on Cuba's Castro *** LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Less than a week after HBO yanked Oliver Stone's documentary on Fidel Castro, PBS said it's tackling the life of the controversial Cuban dictator. WGBH Boston has started production on a two-hour political biography of Castro, who has led Cuba since 1959, for the PBS "American Experience" series. Producer Adriana Bosch plans to interview Cuban public officials, former political prisoners and Castro friends and family members as well as world leaders.

Bosch is an experienced documentarian whose "American Experience" biography on Ronald Reagan (news) won a George Foster Peabody Award. The Castro documentary is slated to air next year. "There is a need for an objective, well-researched documentary on Castro," Margaret Drain, executive producer of "American Experience," said in a statement. "For nearly 50 years, he has commanded our attention ... yet he is unknown to most of us. Current events in Cuba make this film particularly relevant." ***

452 posted on 04/22/2003 1:09:36 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Earth Day / Elián Day***SHOULD LENIN'S BIRTHDAY BE A HOLIDAY, alongside the national holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the new California holiday honoring union boss Cesar Chavez? Why, you might ask, would Americans celebrate the birthday of this mass murderer Marxist, the founder of the is-it-dead-or-only-sleeping Soviet Union? But the sad fact is that our children in public schools and colleges probably are directed to celebrate Lenin's April 22 birthday and his values, whether they know it or not.

Schools and the media now call this date Earth Day, a date that oddly falls each year only a week before an ancient traditional day for celebrating springtime, May Day. (The Soviets marked May Day with a Red Square parade of nuclear missiles and goose-stepping soldiers, the defining symbols of Marxist love.) One of the self-identified "founders" of Earth Day, Bay Area activist John McConnell, has written that in 1969 he proposed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors a new holiday to be called Earth Day on the first day of spring, the Equinox, around March 21. But, he writes, in 1970 local anti-Vietnam War and Environmental Teach-in activists "who were planning a one-time event for April 22, also decided to call their event Earth Day."

And what was this unnamed "one-time event" in 1970? It was the 100th birthday celebration for Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known to history as Lenin, a pen name he might have coined from Siberia's Lena River. He was the patron saint of the North Vietnamese Communists such as Ho Chi Minh that America was fighting. And Lenin apparently has been patron saint to the Marxist vanguard of American activists who with their Teach-ins and other anti-war activities helped their comrades win in Southeast Asia -- and who now hold positions of power throughout American colleges, universities, and media.

Wherever Left-wing political correctness is the dogma imposed by such faculty, Earth Day is likely to be celebrated. Thus, for example, this new holy day of the Marxist faith will find adherents at Princeton University. Princeton is now home to bioethicist Dr. Peter Singer, who defends the right to life of animals but believes parents should have a right to kill their babies not only in the womb but also for up to a year following birth. Exhibiting similar ethics, Princeton's student newspaper published David Horowitz's ad opposing slave reparations for African Americans who have never been slaves, but its editors unprofessionally juxtaposed the ad to their agitprop intended to smear, negate, and shout down its message. These editors, of course, permit no such natural "balance" for Left-wing opinions in their pages. The Prince now ruling Princeton was schooled by Machiavelli.

Might it be mere coincidence that Earth Day falls on Lenin's Birthday? No, this link was apparently intended from the beginning. Sincere environmentalists who objected that Lenin's Soviet Union was a despoiler of the natural ecology of Russia, a dammer of rivers and polluter of ecosystems, have been ignored or silenced. Requests by sincere environmentalists to change Earth Day's date - as one logically would do if a holiday had been accidentally placed on the birthday of a mass murderer such as Adolf Hitler - have been rejected or harshly rebuffed.***

453 posted on 04/22/2003 11:31:35 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Castro Spy Declares Opposition Is Disabled *** HAVANA - An undercover Cuban agent credited with giving some of the most damaging courtroom evidence against dissidents said the island's opposition movement has been shattered. "The opposition is finished, it has ended, it will never lift its head again," Aleida de las Mercedes Godinez told The Associated Press. "The opposition will never flourish again - never!"

……… Godinez provided a rare glimpse inside Castro's intelligence network and demonstrated just how deeply loyal his agents were. She said she never felt any remorse or sorrow for her work even though she worked with some dissidents for years. "Marta Beatriz was an objective of my mission," she said. "I could never be friends with a counterrevolutionary." Godinez said Roque, also a leading member of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society, handled as much as $5,000 every month from various groups in the United States that were funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The USAID Cuba program has given more than $20 million to U.S. groups working with the opposition on the communist-run island since 1996 to bring about a peaceful transition to democracy. Godinez, a former math teacher, said she received about $700 a month from U.S. organizations as head of the National Independent Workers Union of Cuba.

…………………Other agents were just as loyal as her. Dr. Pedro Luis Veliz Martinez, a 39-year-old internist and a member of a long-trusted communist family, told the AP in a separate interview Monday that he was first approached by an Interior Ministry official while doing late-night hospital rounds in 1996. "I never had any doubts," Veliz said. "I am a revolutionary. I am Marxist-Leninist. I believe in communism." After gaining the confidence of government opponents in the Liberal Party - and the organizations in Miami that support them, Veliz founded the Independent Medical College, a professional organization for dissident physicians, in 1999. ***

454 posted on 04/22/2003 11:59:55 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Cuba's Cruel Joke *** Without dollars, life is grim. People line up at dimly lit government distribution centres, ration books in hand - libretas, the government calls them - for their monthly allocation. The books, which were established in 1962 to "guarantee the equitable distribution of food without privileges for a few," entitle Cubans to 2.5 kilograms of rice, 1 kilogram of fish, 1/2 kilogram of beans, 14 eggs and sundry other basics at subsidized prices. Through the libreta, each Cuban also gets one bread roll a day. Every two months, a Cuban is entitled to one bar of hand soap and one bar of laundry soap. Fresh fruits and vegetables come infrequently; meat might come once or twice a year. Until the mid-1990s, children under seven were entitled to fresh milk, but fresh milk, like butter, cheese and other dairy products, is now off the shelves. Before the revolution, two litres of fresh milk cost 15 U.S. cents, well within the means of the poor.

Cuba, a country with a coffee culture, produces fine beans in its Oriente province, but not for average Cubans. The good stuff is sold to tourists and exported to earn dollars, or reserved for the Cuban elite, while the government imports cheaper beans, grinds them, mixes them with ground chickpeas, and doles out 28 grams per month - less than one ounce - to Cuban citizens. The government also exports high quality Cuban rice for dollars while importing a low-grade rice from Vietnam for its citizens. It exports 90% of its fresh fruits, directing much of the rest to tourists and others who can pay in dollars.***

455 posted on 04/23/2003 12:00:53 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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When We Awoke, The Dinosaur Was Still There. The World's Shortest Tale.*** I followed this writer for quite some time. I hunted down his postings in CubaFreePress.org, and translated them as soon as I read them, as did others in this forum. This was his last posted article in the website. I have never been able to find out anything about what fate may have befallen Orlando Contreras, this voice without fear in a silent herd, I hope and pray that he is all right, and that someday, when Cuba is free, I can walk down the street in the little town in Cuba that gave birth to the both of us, and thank him for the lessons in freedom and courage he taught me.*** - Luis Gonzalez
456 posted on 04/23/2003 12:05:24 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Cuban-style chokehold strangles Venezuela*** Outside the Cuban Embassy in Caracas, dozens of Venezuelans carried placards calling Fidel Castro an "assassin" and voicing their concern about the "Cubanization" of a nation once held up as one of Latin America's most long-lived democracies.

By Venezuelan standards, the protest Friday was small, but Castro's imprints on Venezuela continue to loom large. Clearly, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez prefers a Marxist dictatorship cloaked in a constitution that puts him in control of the economy, the courts, the news media and the legislative branch. "We voted for change, but we didn't vote for a revolution," Juan Fernandez told me recently. Fernandez was a key player in the nation's petroleum industry until Chavez fired him to put a political hack in charge. Fernandez's firing, and that of others, led to the failed coup against Chavez a year ago.

About 200 Venezuelans living in the Orlando area came out to hear Fernandez speak earlier this month about his blueprint for peaceful change. He is among those Venezuelans who are leading the charge for new, democratic elections, just recently meeting with Bush administration officials in Washington. But because Fernandez was among those who participated in the national strike against Chavez's government late last year, he's now a wanted man in Venezuela. Fernandez is among several prominent Venezuelans in the growing opposition movement whom Chavez wants to send to prison. His case remains pending. Fernandez's "crime" was simply to offer an opposing point of view. No guns, no secret plots, but a very public national strike seeking new presidential elections.

Since the strike ended, Chavez has moved aggressively to squeeze out businesses, big and small. Chavez has made it illegal, for instance, for Venezuelan businesses to pay in U.S. dollars for goods imported into the country or to get paid in dollars for exports even as the country's currency plunges downward. Venezuela watchers note that of the $1.3 billion that Venezuelans have sought in U.S. currency, the Chavez regime has released only about $30,000, mostly to cover living expenses for students studying abroad.

Chavez has used the failed strike as a pretext to clamp down -- not unlike Castro's move to nationalize foreign enterprises, seize all U.S. dollars and quash any dissent on the island in the early 1960s. Castro argued then that the revolution was under attack from Uncle Sam. Chavez, too, has tried to make that argument, even though polls continue to show that most Venezuelans want new presidential elections.***

457 posted on 04/23/2003 12:20:39 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Castro: Bush is "stupid" - Cuban Crackdown Deepens Strains With U.S.*** *** The Bush administration, unhappy about the Cuban action, is contemplating ways to make Fidel Castro's government pay a price. It also has undercut embargo foes on Capitol Hill. "The embargo is still a bad idea, but changing it isn't going to happen any time soon," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Monday. Brian Alexander of the anti-embargo Cuba Policy Foundation said some House members who had entertained dissidents not long ago at a restaurant in Cuba's capital, Havana, were appalled to learn the waiters were state security agents who testified against the activists at their trials. Cuba contends these dissidents, many of them independent journalists or directors of independent libraries, were subversives working hand-in-hand with the U.S. diplomatic office in Havana, led by career diplomat James Cason. Cuba says the dissidents were funded by the U.S. mission; the State Department denies it and says the mission's role is to seek a peaceful transition to democracy.

Neither Washington nor Havana pays much attention to diplomatic decorum nowadays. In Powell's references to the Cuban leader, he goes straight to "Castro," skipping "president." Castro says President Bush is "stupid." Each side has imposed travel restrictions on the others' diplomats lately. Cuba has even talked about shutting down the U.S. office in Havana and bringing its own envoys home from Washington.***

458 posted on 04/23/2003 1:00:11 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Castro crackdown has dismayed countries that thought the regime was easing its hard line.*** For Brian Alexander of the Cuban Policy Foundation, a group that wants the trade embargo lifted, Castro's charm offensive hit its peak last October when Havana hosted an expo of American agricultural products, which are exempted from the trade embargo. "The Cubans got quite a lot of publicity at the expo, and there was a sense that the movement to end the embargo was growing stronger," Mr. Alexander says. "Now they have hit their base of support in Washington with a sledgehammer. Politically, Cuba is making the embargo a third rail. Politicians who went out on a limb for Cuba are feeling stunned and apprehensive."

Indeed, less than a year ago, the House of Representatives voted to block the administration from enforcing a ban on Americans traveling to Cuba, a measure that was interpreted as bolstering support for lifting the embargo. But last week, the mood on Capitol Hill shifted dramatically. Both supporters and opponents of the embargo in the House voted unanimously, 414-0, to condemn Cuba. For all the criticism of the political crackdown, many see recent events as just one example of a more far-reaching curtailment of freedom on the island as Castro consolidates power for his eventual successor, considered to be his brother Raul.

For many, it began with a widely publicized antidrug campaign of in January. Days later, Cuba's state-run media carried stories of a wider crackdown against black-marketeering enterprises, from massive garment presses and private kitchens to unlicensed landlords and repair shops outside the island's state-run economy. The few licensed private entrepreneurs on the island also came under scrutiny. Most of the recently convicted dissidents were charged under Law 88, which promises tough sentences for Cubans convicted of conspiring with a foreign power. Those convictions and the summary execution of the boat hijackers, coming after a number of other incidents in which hijacked Cuban airplanes were given sanctuary in Florida, were seen as a reminder that Castro was unwilling to brook dissent. "This is the sort of housecleaning that other dictators from Stalin to Mao have been willing to do before they go," Mr. Suchlicki says.***

459 posted on 04/23/2003 1:54:19 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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Castro's Opponents in Cuba Down but Not Out - "I've never felt so much solidarity in the streets." *** HAVANA (Reuters) - Opponents of President Fidel Castro said on Wednesday that mass arrests and infiltration by government spies knocked them to their knees, but they expect to rise again on growing discontent with Cuba's crumbling communist state. Dissidents who survived the worst wave of repression in Cuba in decades said their fragile organizations were decapitated by the round-up of 75 leading dissidents, activists and independent journalists a month ago. "The dissident movement is practically paralyzed," said Vladimiro Roca, who was freed last year after four years in jail for criticizing Castro's economic policies.

"It was a really big blow, but there are enough dissidents out of jail. We are regrouping," the son of a founding father of Cuba's ruling Communist Party told Reuters. Roca said it would take months before disabled dissident groups could raise their heads again. Western diplomats in Havana wonder whether Cuba's small and divided opposition groups will be able to regain momentum after so many were given severe prison terms of up to 28 years.

The crackdown dealt a devastating blow to a nascent opposition movement that had raised its voice last year calling for democratic reforms to the one-party state while enjoying a rare period of official tolerance. Particularly shocking was the number of undercover security agents who surfaced at the trials as witnesses to reveal that they had been posing as dissidents, in some case for decades. "The damage to the dissidents is enormous. I don't know how they will recover now," said a European ambassador. "Who can they trust now, after it turns out that even leading figures were agents for 10 years?" the diplomat added. ***

460 posted on 04/23/2003 1:01:25 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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